


Natural Habitat

by Blizzard96



Category: A.C.E (Beat Interactive Band)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 10:48:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14235642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blizzard96/pseuds/Blizzard96
Summary: What does it mean to be human?Apparently it means going to cat cafes and possibly ignoring all the mission objectives.Or: Byeongkwan's an alien, Sehyoon's an android, and neither of them have any clue when they become neighbors. Also, Jun's electro magnet brings all the boys to the yard and it's an accident, he swears.





	Natural Habitat

**Author's Note:**

> I told y'all to punch me in the face if I ever wrote a long story again, and yet no one came to my house and decked me before I could start writing this. I'm disappointed in all of us.

“-yoon? Sehyoon, can you hear me?” The world came sharply into view as Sehyoon opened his eyes to see Jun’s concerned face looking back at him. The other man let out a sigh of relief as Sehyoon’s eyes focused. “For a second we thought something went wrong with your upgrade.” A quick glance around revealed he was in Jun’s workshop, and he suddenly recalled going in for a visit and his bi-weekly checkup. Yuchan waved at him from where he was writing some strings of code next to a contraption with a lot of loose wires.

Sehyoon silently pulled up his systems diagnostic in the corner of his vision, but everything seemed to be normal. “No, there’s nothing wrong as far as I can tell.”

Jun nodded. “That’s good. Do you feel any different?”

Sehyoon considered the question, wondering if Jun was actually asking or if it was just a force of habit. They both knew that Sehyoon’s “feelings” were programmed, but Jun stubbornly insisted on asking how Sehyoon was doing emotionally whenever the android went in for a checkup. “Not really,” he replied. “What was the upgrade for?”

“It’s supposed to give you a wider range of expressions,” Jun said, bringing up a tablet to scroll through a list “Also, we worked on your vocal chords to give you more inflection while speaking.”

“‘We’?” Sehyoon asked.

“Yeah, Yuchan helped me with this one,” Jun said proudly. Sehyoon turned back to the apprentice, who grinned. “I had no idea how to program the expressions or tones.”

“You’re a lot more high tech than I thought,” Yuchan said, “I thought Jun was exaggerating when he said you were nearly human, but you have all the software there.”

Sehyoon blinked. “I didn’t realize.”

“Oh, well basically you have the latest in ArtificialEmotions tech and your core processor is-“ Jun crossed the room to cover Yuchan’s mouth with his hand.

“Alright, I’m sure Sehyoon is capable of looking all that over himself,” Jun sighed, only to yelp a second later when Yuchan licked his hand. He pulled it back from the boy’s mouth like he’d been burned. “You little-“

“Is that all you needed to do?” Sehyoon asked, wanting to head home. He was interested in looking through his code for the update and exploring it more.

Jun gave Yuchan one last glare, wiping his hand on his work apron, before turning back to Sehyoon. “Yeah, that should be everything. Remember to call me if anything starts acting up.” Sehyoon nodded and scooted off the work table to his feet. He had just reached the doorway when Jun called out, “Actually, one last thing.” Sehyoon turned and raised an eyebrow. “It might be good for you to try and interact more with humans so you can blend in better. Hiding in your apartment all the time might raise suspicion.”

Jun said the words kindly, but Sehyoon still grimaced. He’d always been more the type to stay home alone, and he was comfortable in the isolation. Also, he thought it was just safer for him. There were rarely androids that existed without owners, and if someone knew about him it was likely he would be reported and sent back to the factory to be wiped and possibly even disassembled. People generally feared androids like him, and it was common for androids to be returned at the first sign of sentience.

He’d been lucky that Jun had ordered him and was content to simply mess around with Sehyoon’s programming a bit before turning him loose. Jun had said initially that he’d wanted to see if he could just make Sehyoon more independent, but now the mechanic was convinced Sehyoon had his own consciousness. Sehyoon himself wasn’t sure about that at times, but he still tried to live by himself. A part of him was curious if Jun’s theory was true.

“Alright,” Sehyoon promised, wondering if it would be that easy. He tended to be awkward around strangers. However, Jun just gave him a wide smile and waved the android on, seemingly confident in Sehyoon’s social capabilities. Sehyoon wished he was able to believe in himself that much.

 

* * *

 

“Alright, what is rule number one?” Donghun asked, staring hard at his new partner. He had no idea why his superiors had assigned the new trainee to him, but he was in no position to object. Now, though, he wished he had as he watched the other nearly bouncing in excitement as he stared out the large window at the blue orb below them.

“Don’t reveal your identity or our existence under any circumstances,” Byeongkwan rattled off, face almost pressed against the glass. Donghun suppressed a sigh before looking out the window himself. The Earth looked peaceful from so far up, white clouds swirling over its blue and green surface. He almost wished he was going down to the planet himself. Almost.

“Right. I’m sending you down in the spare pod. It’s programmed to return in three hours, so make sure you have all your stuff out by then. Contact me on your holopad if anything goes wrong or if you need more time.” He dug around in the binder he was holding for a second. “Here is the location you’ll be stationed at. It’s an apartment complex,” he said, pulling out another holopad.

Byeongkwan finally tore his gaze away from the window to eagerly grab the digital tablet and swipe through it. “Will I have neighbors?” he asked, eyes wide.

“Most likely,” Donghun confirmed. “The complex seemed pretty full from what our initial scans of the place showed.” The other’s eyes sparkled, and Donghun felt dread grow in his stomach. As far as he knew from Byeongkwan’s training files, the new recruit had never been on a planet aside from their home. Donghun wondered for the millionth time if there had somehow been a mixup in the paperwork to get Byeongkwan assigned here.

“Do you think they’re nice?” Byeongkwan asked, tapping the screen in his hands to see what data they had on the other occupants. There was only a brief overview of some of the other tenants.

Donghun shrugged, his closed gills getting itchy like they did when he was under stress. “Maybe. I couldn’t tell you anything about that. You’ve watched all the media, right?” Byeongkwan nodded. “Then you’re about as prepared for humans as I am.” Donghun’s wristband beeped, and he looked down to see it was almost time to send Byeongkwan off. “Alright, let’s get to the pods,” he said, biting the inside of his cheek as the other perked up like an excited child once again. “Remember, this is strictly a mission for monitoring humans and the environment. Try not to stand out.”

Byeongkwan pressed a fist to his chest over his two hearts in a dramatic salute. “You can count on me!” Donghun felt a headache coming on.

 

* * *

 

“Ah!” Sehyoon stumbled back as he accidentally bumped into someone, causing them to drop a heavy stack of boxes in their arms. He berated himself for having too many screens up in his vision and not paying attention to his normal warning signals. Sehyoon looked up ready to apologize to the other boy he’d just knocked over. His eyes landed on a shorter boy, younger than him going by appearances (though Sehyoon himself was only a few years old if they were actually counting). The boy had fluffy blonde hair and was wearing casual clothes. Initial vital scans showed him to be healthy and uninjured from their collision, though with an unnaturally strong heartbeat, almost as if there were two of them. Sehyoon made a mental note to update his software since that couldn’t be right.

“Sorry,” Sehyoon began, “I wasn’t watching where I was going.” He offered a hand to the other. “Are you alright?” To his surprise, the boy just beamed as he took Sehyoon’s hand and got to his feet, seemingly unconcerned about his possessions being strewn all over the ground.

“It’s all good!” the boy said, dusting off his clothes. “I don’t think anything broke.” He looked around at the boxes and Sehyoon did as well. As the android analyzed the mess, he silently wondered how the small boy had managed to carry so much in the first place. “I’m moving in,” the boy explained. “Room 203.”

Sehyoon nodded. “Ah, I see. I’m 204.”

The boy lit up. “So we’re neighbors! I’m Kim Byeongkwan!”

“Kim Sehyoon,” Sehyoon replied, blinking at how excited the other boy appeared. Sehyoon didn’t think many people usually reacted this happily to learning some person who’d just dumped all their earthly possessions all over the floor was their neighbor, but maybe he was out of touch with other humans. He jolted out of his thoughts as Byeongkwan started gathering together his strewn boxes and luggage. “Oh, uh, let me help,” Sehyoon said.

“Thanks!” Byeongkwan said, beaming at him, “That’s nice of you!”

Sehyoon raised an eyebrow. “It’s the least I can do. It was my fault anyway.”

“I wasn’t watching where I was going either,” Byeongkwan said, waving him off. After about fifteen minutes spent picking up Byeongkwan’s belongings, Sehyoon was left with an armful of things that were verging on too heavy for him. Sehyoon was momentarily confused as he was designed to be capable of carrying loads many times greater than the average human’s capacity, but he had no idea how Byeongkwan had been managing to hold it all together initially.

“I can show you to your place,” Sehyoon offered, peering around the boxes in his arms. He could barely see Byeongkwan’s blonde hair sticking over his own pile.

“That’d be great!” Byeongkwan’s voice replied. Sehyoon set off toward his own apartment, watching Byeongkwan carefully as they climbed a flight of stairs, though the other didn’t seem to be struggling at all with his load. When they reached the apartment, Byeongkwan dropped his things with a loud thud before digging around in the pocket of his sweatpants for his keys.

“You can just leave it all in the hall,” he told Sehyoon. “I’ll get it in myself.”

Sehyoon frowned. “Are you sure? Really, it’s no trouble.”

“It’s fine,” Byeongkwan said, finally finding his keys and getting his door open. Sehyoon could see the inside was pretty bare, and he wondered if Byeongkwan had furniture coming in soon. Sehyoon dropped the boxes on the ground hesitantly, but Byeongkwan’s smile never faltered.

“Well, I’ll be over here if you need any assitance,” Sehyoon said dubiously, pointing to his door right next to Byeongkwan’s. 

The new arrival nodded eagerly. “I’ll keep that in mind! Thanks for your help. I was really nervous about moving somewhere else, but it seems like I was worried about nothing!”

Sehyoon felt happy, which was new. He wondered if there was something more to the upgrade than Jun had told him. Unbidden, Jun’s earlier advice about interacting more with humans came back to him. A new face was the perfect excuse for Sehyoon to work on his social skills, and he could practically hear Jun and Yuchan yelling at him not to waste this opportunity. “Um,” he said, getting Byeongkwan’s attention. “I’ve actually lived in the area for a while. I’d be happy to show you around once you get settled in.”

Byeongkwan paused for a second, and Sehyoon worried that he’d overstepped his bounds. Had that been too forward? But apparently his concerns were unfounded as the other boy just smiled at him. “I think I’ll take you up on that,” he said, nodding. Sehyoon let out an internal sigh of relief.

“Well, guess I’ll see you around then,” Sehyoon said awkwardly, moving toward his own door. With a final nod to Byeongkwan, he slipped inside of his apartment and locked the door behind him. Once he leaned against the door he felt a stirring in his core that he thought might be a sense of accomplishment. Maybe he could make this whole human thing work after all.

 

* * *

 

Byeongkwan hummed to himself as he brought the last box in from the hallway and dropped it unceremoniously in the spacious open area he assumed was some kind of common room. Upon his first tour through the small apartment, he found the bedroom and bathroom were sectioned off, but everything else including his kitchen was in one area. It wasn’t a bad setup, and honestly his room on the ship was smaller, so Byeongkwan was eager to enjoy the space.

He pulled out the cell phone Donghun had given him, flipping through the applications on it. Most of them he could figure out easily (he was honestly a bit sad humans hadn’t perfected holograms like his holopad had, but he was sure they’d develop them soon enough). Byeongkwan also noted that Donghun had downloaded some free cat game to his phone that he wasted a good fifteen minutes on. Finally, he flipped to his contacts list and was oddly disappointed to see no names in there. He knew that if he needed Donghun or any of his other friends back home he could call them on his holopad, but it was still disheartening to see a blank list.

Byeongkwan absently wondered if Sehyoon had a phone. Most likely he did. From what Byeongkwan had seen in all the media he watched, nearly every human had one. He grinned, remembering how the other had helped him out earlier and offered to show him around. That had worked perfectly into Byeongkwan’s initial goals anyway. What better way to learn more about humans than to have one explain it to him? He was going to totally crush his first assignment. Donghun would be so proud of him.

 

* * *

 

Donghun tried to ignore the churning in his stomach when the empty pod returned to the ship’s dock. Since Byeongkwan hadn’t contacted him yet, Donghun was forced to assume he’d gotten to his assigned living quarters without any problems. The scout was due for a check in the next morning, but for now, Donghun tried to relax by flipping through a few of the human’s local channels in hopes of finding any information to pass on to Byeongkwan.

There wasn’t much of substance that Donghun could see. A couple of cooking channels were mildly interesting, and he might send some recipes later if Byeongkwan needed them for shopping, but otherwise nothing. He was about to flip the screen off and call it a night when a commercial caught his eyes. It was for some kind of new android model. The robot looked stunningly lifelike, and Donghun would have trouble discerning it from normal humans.

He bit his lip. Would Byeongkwan stand out for not having an android of his own? From what he’d found in his previous research, androids were fairly common but not so much that Byeongkwan would draw attention for not having one. They were expensive anyway, and Donghun didn’t want to have to send Byeongkwan more money for one since he was sure the scout wouldn’t use it much anyway. Still, he should probably tell Byeongkwan to look into them just in case.

 

* * *

 

Apparently when Byeongkwan said he’d take Sehyoon up on the offer to show the new tenant around he’d meant the very next day, as Sehyoon was jolted out of his sleep mode by a pounding on the door. When he accessed cameras that he set up at the entrance, a grainy image of Byeongkwan appeared in his vision. He frowned, dismissing the screen and quickly getting dressed. Sehyoon was thankful he didn’t need to shower really at all as he was able to get ready in a matter of minutes (and he saved a fortune on water).

He opened the door to see Byeongkwan looking at him eagerly. “Uh, morning,” Sehyoon said, wincing at how awkward he sounded.

“Morning!” Byeongkwan replied happily, evidently not thrown off at all. “How are you?”

“I’m…good,” Sehoon said.

Byeongkwan’s face dropped in a worried expression. “Sorry, am I too early?”

According to Sehyoon’s internal clock it was around eleven in the morning. Though Jun or Yuchan might have protested the hour, Sehyoon was fine since he was fully charged. “No, it’s fine. Uh, did you want me to show you around now?”

The other boy nodded. “Yes! What do you all normally do around here?”

Sehyoon thought for a moment. “Well, we could go get brunch I guess. There’s a good restaurant not too far from here. My friend Jun says he likes the eggs.”

Byeongkwan nodded. “Yeah, that sounds great!”

“Let me just get my wallet,” Sehyoon said, heading back into his apartment to grab his wallet, keys, and coat. When he returned, Byeongkwan was frowning at a credit card in his hand.

“This is money, right?” he asked, looking nervous.

Sehyoon felt his face scrunch up in confusion. It must be part of the upgrade, he thought. “Yeah, they take card,” he told the blonde.

Byeongkwan looked relieved and slipped the card into his pocket. “Oh, good. I don’t know how to get cash.”

“I can show you the bank afterwards,” Sehyoon offered. “They have an ATM out front you can get cash from.”

“Really?” Byeongkwan asked, eyes wide. “Wow, you guys are so much more advanced than we thought.” 

Sehyoon was unsure if that was a compliment, and his normal response code was not helping him in this situation. “Thank you?” the words came out as a question. Byeongkwan just nodded in response.

“So what do you usually eat?” Byeongkwan asked, changing the subject. Sehyoon took that as his cue to begin leading Byeongkwan to the restaurant a few blocks away.

“Oh, well,” Sehyoon began, floundering a bit. He didn’t usually eat, though androids were capable of it. “Eggs and ham and hashbrowns,” he said, rattling off Yuchan’s usual order. The apprentice mechanic always seemed to enjoy it when they went out, so Sehyoon assumed it was good enough.

“That sounds good,” Byeongkwan said. “I haven’t tried that before.” 

Sehyoon shrugged. “My friend recommended it to me.”

Byeongkwan’s mouth formed an ‘o’ in acknowledgement. “Do you have many friends?”

It was an innocent question, but Sehyoon found himself frowning. He really didn’t know anyone aside from Jun and Yuchan and, while the two were friendly enough, Sehyoon typically only saw them a couple of times a month. Jun had always insisted that Sehyoon could drop by more, but the android felt awkward about intruding while the two were working. “I have two friends,” Sehyoon said. “We hang out every now and then. What about you? Do you have any friends here?”

Byeongkwan shook his head. “No, all my friends are at my… hometown.” Sehyoon noticed the pause as Byeongkwan struggled to find a word, but he didn't say anything.

He hummed. “Why did you move out here? You don’t have to tell me if it’s personal.” Sehyoon cursed himself internally for possibly overstepping his bounds again. Humans didn’t ask those kinds of questions to people they just met, right?

“I just wanted a change of scenery, I guess,” Byeongkwan said, oblivious to Sehyoon’s inner turmoil. “Where I’m from, there aren’t many opportunities to leave, so I had to grab my chance while I could. I’m happy to be here though. I’ve never seen a place like it.”

Sehyoon was a little confused by that. As far as he was concerned, the apartment block they lived in was pretty average with the city itself not being very remarkable either. He wondered what kind of place Byeongkwan was from where this was an improvement. “We’re here,” Sehyoon said, mildly surprised himself when his internal tracking device pinged and announced in the corner of his vision that they’d arrived at their destination.

“It smells great!” Byeongkwan announced excitedly, eyes roving toward the chalkboard sign set outside the restaurant announcing the daily specials. “What’s a… quickie?”

Sehyoon did a double take, looking at the sign in shock for the word. He didn’t think the restaurant offered that kind of service. “What?! That’s not…” He looked where Byeongkwan’s finger was pointing at the sign, “It’s pronounced ‘quiche’.” 

“Oh,” Byeongkwan said, drawing out the sound. 

“It’s like if breakfast were a pastry,” Sehyoon said, pulling up some online articles in his internal database along with the restaurant’s online menu. “It’s got eggs, cheese, and bacon in it.”

“Is it good?”

“I’ve never tried it myself,” Sehyoon admitted.

Byeongkwan tilted his head to the side. “I guess I can try it.” They headed to the door and were soon seated by the waitress with two menus and two glasses of water.

Sehyoon looked over the menu, each item’s calorie count popping up in the corner of his vision. He wondered when that feature had been added. “What looks good to you?” he asked, wondering how much Byeongkwan’s tastes would differ from the other humans he knew.

Byeongkwan looked increasingly baffled by the menu as he read it, and Sehyoon began to grow concerned. Had he picked a bad place? Yuchan and Jun always liked coming here, but maybe Byeongkwan had some kind of allergy or something. 

“I don't know what half these things are,” Byeongkwan whispered, almost to himself, but Sehyoon’s enhanced hearing picked up on it.

The android made the decision that if he was going to play guide, he was going to do it right. He turned his menu to show Byeongkwan and started going down each item, listing off the ingredients, calorie count, and whatever the Wikipedia article about each food said. To his surprise Byeongkwan listened intently, and when Sehyoon finished he seemed to have an idea of what to order.

“Thanks Sehyoon,” Byeongkwan said gratefully, giving the other man a grin. “I was at a loss there.” Sehyoon felt happiness well up inside him as Byeongkwan snapped a photo of the menu on his phone. When the waitress came back, they both managed to order without any problems.

 

* * *

 

“Oh my god,” Byeongkwan said, freezing in place. After breakfast and the bank, Sehyoon had taken him to a park saying it was one of the few places with any nature in it within the city. Though Byeongkwan had admired the architecture of the skyscrapers, he was fascinated by the trees and plant life in the park. He briefly recalled the nature documentaries he’d been required to watch before coming to Earth. Though many of them featured landscapes more extravagant than this, it was nothing compared to seeing Earth’s nature in real life.

“Yeah, it’s pretty small,” Sehyoon said, misinterpreting his shock, “But it does actually feature quite a few species of flowers.” Sehyoon began to list off all the flowers that lined the area. Byeongkwan had noticed that sometimes it seemed like Sehyoon was reading out of a textbook and would get a faraway look in his eyes, but maybe that was just what some humans were like.

“What is _that_?!” Byeongkwan blurted, looking at a small creature on a leash.

Sehyoon turned to see what Byeongkwan was looking at. “It appears to be a Labrador puppy,” Sehyoon said.

“A dog,” Byeongkwan whispered, inching closer. Could he just walk up and ask to see the dog? Did humans do that? Sehyoon evidently noticed Byeongkwan’s hesitation because his brow furrowed.

“Do you… want to pet it?” he asked. Byeongkwan nodded slowly, wondering if that was offensive to humans. Sehyoon walked over to the dog’s owner, Byeongkwan trailing after him. “Excuse me,” he said to the woman holding the dog’s leash, “Is it alright if we pet your dog?” Luckily, she smiled and nodded.

“His name is Daniel,” she said as the two of them stooped down to look at the puppy.

“He’s so small,” Byeongkwan remarked, reaching out to pet the top of the puppy’s head. It was soft and fluffy. Byeongkwan wondered if Donghun would let him take one (or ten) back to the ship with him when his assignment was over.

The woman laughed. “He’s four months old. He’ll be a lot bigger soon.” After a few minutes of petting the dog, they thanked the woman and continued down the path through the park. “I love dogs,” Byeongkwan said.

Sehyoon grinned. “We can go to the dog park next.”

Byeongkwan gasped. “There’s a park entirely for dogs?!” Sehyoon laughed out loud.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “And if you like cats, there’s a cat cafe a few blocks away.” Byeongkwan was immediately reminded of the cat game on his phone.

“That’s amazing,” he breathed. He grabbed Sehyoon’s arm excitedly. “We have to go to the cat cafe.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

 

* * *

 

Donghun looked down at the photos Byeongkwan had sent him with mild confusion. He definitely did want the scout take photos of his daily life and any things of interest, but he was unsure of why he only had fifteen photos of various dogs and cats and one of another man that Donghun assumed was the Sehyoon that Byeongkwan had mentioned in his report. He wrote back that Byeongkwan should take more photos of other humans and maybe some establishements before switching the screen off.

He shook his head. Byeongkwan was younger than him, and thus Donghun felt responsible. Should he call off the investigation? But nothing seemed to be going wrong on Byeongkwan’s end, so maybe Donghun was overreacting. Donghun resolved to revisit the thought if the new trainee’s next report was concerning.

Suddenly, his ship lurched to the left, making Donghun stumble. He grabbed the control panel for support. The ship stabilized a moment later, and Donghun hurried to bring up the ship’s diagnostics, frowning in confusion when nothing seemed to be wrong with its thrusters or stabilizers, nor had its shields been struck by debris. Had it just been a freak accident? The ship wasn’t very old, but maybe it was just settling somehow. Donghun would contact the home base if it happened again.

 

* * *

 

_One month later_

 

“So Sehyoon, how’s that new upgrade working out?” Jun asked eagerly the next time Sehyoon had come in for a checkup. He could hardly believe it had been a month since his upgrade (and consequently a month since Byeongkwan had dropped into his life). So much had changed in such a short time frame. His new neighbor had all but invaded his life, but somehow Sehyoon didn’t mind. It was almost like learning to appreciate everything around him all over again. He couldn’t recall ever meeting another human with so much appreciation for everything, from animals to buildings to even the most basic of errands.

“There’s no bugs or anything with it,” Sehyoon said. “I think I’ve been appearing pretty convincing as a human too.”

“Really?” Jun asked, “Have you been talking with humans?”

Sehyoon nodded. “I have a new neighbor and we’ve been hanging out.”

Jun grinned. “That’s great! Isn’t that great, Yuchan?” He turned to his apprentice who looked over from his project. Sehyoon was about 85% sure it was a laser.

“Huh? Oh, yeah!” Yuchan agreed. “Have you been going to places with many people with him?”

Sehyoon thought for a minute. “We usually just go to parks or restaurants. He likes food and animals.”

“That’s relatable,” Yuchan said. “If I could form the rest of my life around those two things, I’d be happy.”

“Are you happier now, Sehyoon?” Jun asked. 

Sehyoon frowned. A month ago, he would’ve said that he wasn’t sure he was capable of such an emotion, but now it was like things had shifted. He’d noticed these feelings in other parts of his life as well. He was happy whenever he heard from Jun or Yuchan or whenever Byeongkwan dragged him off to another restaurant the boy had found on Yelp. He was sad and bored whenever he was stuck at home by himself. These feelings were messy, and honestly they made him a little uncomfortable, but he couldn’t imagine going back to the way he was before. That kind of detachment was definitely not appealing.

“Yes,” Sehyoon found himself saying, “I think I am.”

“Well, that should be all then,” Jun said, looking satisfied. Something occurred to Sehyoon.

“Actually, I do have one problem,” he said. “You need to beef up your anti-virus software. I managed to contain a virus myself and erase it, but it might negatively affect some older models of androids.”

Jun frowned. “What kind of virus?”

Sehyoon sighed before opening his mouth. An automated female voice that definitely wasn’t Sehyoon’s own spilled out.

_“Want to meet sexy singles in your area? Join now at-“_

“Alright, I get it!” Jun said, covering Sehyoon’s mouth as Yuchan burst into giggles behind him. 

 

* * *

 

“And then we got ice cream!” Byeongkwan exclaimed, “I beamed you some in case you want to analyze it. Or eat it. Either works. Can we make ice cream back on the ship? I don't think it’ll be too hard to make.”

Donghun stared straight ahead, steadfastly ignoring both the cup of slowly melting ice cream sitting next to his hand on the control panel and the itching in his gills. As soon as the frozen treat had arrived and started melting, Donghun had panicked and put it in a stasis field, worried that Byeongkwan had sent him something important and fragile. “Are you telling me it’s just food?” he said, cutting off Byeongkwan’s rambling about different ice cream flavors. They were nearly a month into their observation of Earth and its cultures and Byeongkwan _still_ insisted on sending him random samples despite Donghun’s progressively more passive aggressive responses to them.

“Yeah!” Byeongkwan said. “Really good food!”

Donghun pinched the bridge of his nose. “Beaming things back to the ship is supposed to be for important samples. Like soil, water and other things.”

Byeongkwan scoffed. “You should try some of that ice cream and then tell me it’s not an important sample.”

“I’m hanging up now,” Donghun said, not giving the other time to protest before he ended the video call. He glared down at the offending cup of ice cream wondering if he should just toss it out of the airlock out of spite. After staring at it for a while, he finally caved and grabbed an eating utensil. As soon as the flavor hit his tongue, his eyes widened. He silently resolved to never tell Byeongkwan how good he thought it was as he finished it in less than a minute.

He’d hardly finished his ice cream when the ship tilted dangerously. He rushed to hang on, the control panel flashing and at least five alarms going off. It had been happening periodically since a month ago, but it had never been this intense. This time it didn’t seem to be stabilizing after a few minutes.

Donghun’s hearts leapt as there was a sudden dip, time seeming to freeze for a brief second, before his ship started hurtling downward. His view port became obscured by flames as the ship started burning up in Earth’s atmosphere on its impact bound spiral.

He cursed and abandoned the control panel, struggling with every ounce of his strength to propel himself toward the back of the ship where the docks were while also trying not to be laid flat by the force of free fall. He finally managed to get to the spare pod, slamming his hand against a button to shut the pod’s door behind him. With his last ounce of his energy, he hit the eject button for the pod and forced himself into a stasis chamber, head snapping back as the pod shot away from the falling ship. His vision swam in front of him as the chamber began to fill with gel that he hoped would be enough to absorb the brunt of the impact.

Donghun blacked out.

 

* * *

 

“Jun, this is so stupid,” Yuchan said, looking at the machine in front of him. He was sweating, and Jun was as well. The sun beat down on the junk yard so much that there were lazy waves of heat shimmering up from the rusty metal piles around them. “Why do you even want a giant electro magnet? We repair robots and androids. We have no use for it. And it only points straight up!”

Jun huffed. “It only points straight up _for now_. I’m gonna put a swivel on it.” He made a gesture with his hands to demonstrate how the magnet would be able to move around. “And it’s not just any electro magnet, it’s the most powerful electro magnet ever made! You’d be able to pull debris from space with this baby,” he said, patting the machine proudly. Yuchan just looked at Jun pointedly when the machine made a series of alarming clangs.

“Right,” Yuchan deadpanned. “Why do we want to do that?”

“Well, I was kind of hoping it would help us move around some of our spare parts in the scrap yard,” Jun said.

Yuchan tilted his head. “I guess that makes sense. We could have just bought an electro magnet for that though.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Jun scoffed. He flipped a series of switches before backing up and motioning Yuchan to move back as well. “Okay, I’m going to turn it on now,” he said, picking up a box with two large buttons on it before retreating behind a makeshift shield of scrap metal. 

Yuchan crouched down beside him. “I feel like this isn’t a good idea,” Yuchan said nervously, glancing skyward.

“I’m sure plenty of people say that before they test great ideas,” Jun said. He took a deep breath and slammed down the green button on the box, bracing himself. The machine in front of them started humming from what Jun could hear, and then nothing. They both sat there for a few minutes longer, but none of the metal in the scrap heap they’d set up for testing seemed to be drawn to it.

“I knew I should have put the swivel on first,” Jun muttered, and Yuchan rolled his eyes.

“Just shut it off and we can-“

Suddenly there was a huge explosion that sounded like it was right near them that made both of them jolt. Jun could feel the impact reverberating in his bones, and Yuchan shrieked. Jun quickly wrapped his arms around the boy, as debris pinged off their flimsy metal shield. The temperature somehow got a lot hotter around them, and Jun smelled something burning. He flattened both of them as close to the ground as possible, and looked up to see dust and debris flying overhead.

“Turn it off! Turn it off!” Yuchan shrieked over the cacophony of shrieking metal. Jun scrambled for his box, dubious his magnet still even worked after that impact, and hit the bright red button. They stayed frozen still on the ground for about fifteen more minutes until everything seemed to settle and then ten more just to safe. There was still dust and smoke clogging the air and making their eyes water, but it didn’t seem like anything else was falling from the sky. Jun cautiously got to his feet and peered over their shield. He gasped.

His electro magnet was smashed to bits, but on top of it was a large pastel blue pod shaped _thing_ , humming with energy. From this distance, the pod looked completely smooth and inhuman.

“Holy shit,” Yuchan breathed, staring at the pod with wide eyes.

“Language,” Jun said. Yuchan gave him a deadpan stare. Jun started approaching the pod carefully from where he was.

“What is that?” Yuchan asked. “A UFO?” It was big enough to hold maybe as many as a minion would hold if they squeezed, but Jun couldn’t imagine living in it. “Maybe we should go get someone,” Yuchan whispered, though he still trailed behind Jun. “What if it’s dangerous?”

“But what if it’s not?” Jun argued, now just a few yards from it. “If it’s really an alien and we bring other people, they might think we’re attacking them.”

“What if we should be attacking them?” Yuchan muttered. After a few minutes of inching closer, ready to leap back at the first sign of movement, Jun was finally near enough to touch it. He hesitantly reached a hand out toward the smooth blue surface.

“You’re definitely going to catch some kind of space virus,” Yuchan said. Jun bit his lip, but still placed a hand on the exterior. It was just as smooth as it appeared, and Jun wondered what kind of materials might have been used to construct it. It was warm and buzzing slightly under his hand. Suddenly, there was a hiss of pressure being released, and Jun backed up so fast he crashed into Yuchan.

The two of them stumbled back as the ship seemed to split in half, opening up to reveal a simple white interior. It held a series of padded benches and a screen that was now cracked in half, glitchy images flashing on it every now and again. There was a loud noise, like a groan, as some being rose up and moved in the back of the ship.

“Oh shit,” Yuchan whispered, clinging to Jun as the thing moved to get up. Jun didn’t bother correcting Yuchan’s language this time, half worried that the sound would draw the notice of the creature. As the creature moved toward the front, some kind of green slime dripping from its form, Jun’s brain screamed at him to run but it was as if his feet were glued to the ground. Yuchan wasn’t faring much better, his jaw hanging slack in horror.

And then the creature stumbled forward, dropping out of the ship in front of them and landing facedown with a wet splat, sending the green goo flying everywhere. Jun spluttered as some of the goo landed on his bare skin and immediately swiped at it, but it didn't seem to be burning or otherwise affecting him at all. He was distracted though when the creature got to its feet, raised its head and…

“What?” Yuchan blurted in disbelief. Jun silently echoed the sentiment as he met the eyes of what looked like a very pissed off looking man barely older looking than Jun himself. The being swiped a hand over his face to clear it of the slime and glared at Jun before spinning around to look at the ship he’d just come from. He said something so loudly and vehemently that, even though Jun didn’t speak whatever language the man did, he was pretty sure it was profanity.

“Um,” Jun said, getting the being’s attention. He immediately regretted it when the other spun back to him with barely contained rage. Jun wondered if the alien might just pull out a ray gun and obliterate him on the spot. The alien narrowed his eyes first at Jun and then at Yuchan before saying something in another language, one with far too many dips and lifts in tone for Jun to comprehend. “Uh, we can’t…” Jun tried, making an indecipherable hand motion.

“It was Jun’s fault!” Yuchan blurted, staring at the man(?) with wide eyes. 

“You traitor,” Jun hissed. The man ignored the comment and huffed before lifting his wrist and fiddling with some kind of wristband for a few minutes.

“That better?” he asked. Jun jerked back as the words spilled from the other’s mouth.

“What the hell?!” Jun said, “You can speak Korean?!”

“Ah, you can understand me now,” the man said nodding before crossing his arms over his chest. Though Jun couldn’t see any weapons right now on the other’s person he didn’t doubt that the man was capable of seriously kicking his ass even without a ray gun. “Alright, which one of you assholes brought down my ship?”

 

* * *

 

Donghun was not having a good day. When his pod started going down, he’d jumped into the stasis gel usually used for long term trips where an stabilized sleep state was necessary in hopes that it would double as shock absorption. He wasn’t sure if that was what ended up saving him in the end or if the pods were really just that sturdy, but either way he was still alive and now stranded on Earth.

At least the humans he’d almost crashed on top of were letting him use their shower and living area. After yelling at both Jun and Yuchan (apparently their names if the way they kept whispering them to each other was any indication) for a good few minutes, Donghun had been overcome with exhaustion. Oddly concerned for him Jun had, despite Yuchan’s warnings, offered to let Donghun stay in their apartment for the foreseeable future. 

He’d sent a distress signal home from the thankfully surviving spare holopad stored in the pod, and had yet to receive a response. Unfortunately, the signal had quite a way to travel and it was likely that whoever was working through requests was busy and wouldn’t be able to respond soon because he was not in critical danger. He should probably contact Byeongkwan about his situation as well, but Donghun was honestly just so tired that he wanted to lay down and sleep. However…

“Do you use the bathroom?” Yuchan asked, looking at Donghun critically.

He sighed loudly. He’d given up on tact after the twentieth question. Donghun had briefly considered turning off his translator, but he thought that might be unnecessarily mean and the kid was pretty adorable anyway. It was frustratingly hard to stay mad at him. “Yes,” he said, opting not to clarify on the point. 

“What do you eat?”

“You probably wouldn’t be able to pronounce it.”

“Is Donghun your real name?”

“No, but you wouldn’t be able to pronounce that either.”

“What’s your planet called?”

“Why do you keep asking for the names of things when I’m saying you can’t pronounce our language?”

“Are there any other aliens on Earth?”

“That’s classified.”

“So there ARE.”

“…”

“Is this your first time on Earth?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your favorite thing so far?”

“The shower.”

“Do they not have showers on your planet?”

“It’s more of a chemical bath.”

“Is that why you were covered in slime when you got here?”

“Actually no.”

“Is it why you still smell so funky?”

“I’m not answering that,” Donghun said, crossing his arms over his chest and steadfastly ignoring Yuchan’s pouting. He was grateful when Yuchan gave up after a minute since he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have held out much longer. 

Jun poked his head around the corner from the kitchen. “Yuchan, are you harassing the alien again? Let him sleep. He literally just crash landed.”

“Thank you,” Donghun said, laying down on the couch and stretching out. 

“We can interrogate him tomorrow,” Jun added, promptly making Donghun’s stress levels skyrocket. He grabbed one of the small pillows off their couch and smushed it over his face, wondering if he could suffocate himself with it despite his hidden gills.

 

* * *

 

Byeongkwan knocked on Sehyoon’s door. His friend had been exhausted all night when they went out for dinner, and Byeongkwan had insisted that the other get some sleep despite Sehyoon’s protests and apologies. However, Byeongkwan had realized that the other had briefly given his cell phone to Byeongkwan to hold, and the off worlder had forgotten to return it until an hour later. Now he had it clutched in his hand as he knocked on Sehyoon’s front door.

There was no response after a few minutes, making Byeongkwan frown. Usually Sehyoon was very prompt about answering the door, seeming to know Byeongkwan was outside before he even said anything. Maybe Sehyoon had been more tired than Byeongkwan had previously thought. The alien bit his lip before fishing around in his pocket for the spare key Sehyoon had given him. When Byeongkwan had asked why he was being trusted with it after only knowing Sehyoon for about a month, Sehyoon had just shrugged and said he had no one else to give it to. Even with that flimsy reasoning, Byeongkwan still felt happy whenever he thought about it. He’d never been trusted with anything like that before with any of his other friends back home.

Byeongkwan had let himself in quietly, looking around. He’d been in Sehyoon’s apartment before whenever they decided to order pizza and watch terrible movies, but it seemed unnaturally quiet and unwelcoming now. He shut the door softly behind him and moved through the apartment until he was walking toward Sehyoon’s bedroom. Maybe he should just leave the phone on the counter? But what if Sehyoon couldn’t find it when he woke up and panicked? The decision was made for him when he saw Sehyoon’s bedroom door was wide open.

He peeked in and saw that he could just drop the phone on Sehyoon’s dresser near the door, breathing out a sigh of relief. Byeongkwan went into the room and placed the phone right on the dresser before looking to the bed in hopes he hadn’t woken Sehyoon up. He’d probably be able to laugh it off, but he had no idea if this was some kind of social taboo for humans. He spun toward the bed, already mentally crafting an apology should Sehyoon wake up, only for the words to freeze in his mouth.

There was no one in the bed, the sheets pristine as if they’d never been used. Byeongkwan frowned. Where was Sehyoon? He turned to leave and find his friend in the apartment, ready to lecture him about getting some sleep, when he nearly jumped out of his skin.

Sehyoon was standing next to the door where he entered, the door blocking Byeongkwan from seeing him initially. Sehyoon was staring straight ahead, and Byeongkwan had to take a few deep breaths, hand pressed to his chest, before his hearts’ rates calmed down.

“You almost gave me heart attacks,” Byeongkwan huffed. Sehyoon said nothing. Byeongkwan frowned as Sehyoon continued to stare straight ahead, not even acknowledging Byeongkwan’s presence. He snapped his fingers in front of Sehyoon’s face. The other man didn’t even twitch. Byeongkwan felt fear creeping in his gut. Was this some kind of human condition? Should he call an ambulance?

He quickly examined Sehyoon head to toe to see if the other had some kind of injury, but found nothing until he reached the other’s ankle. There was a thick black wire extending from Sehyoon’s pant leg and leading to a charger in an electrical outlet. Byeongkwan blinked, trying to recall his knowledge of the human anatomy. Try as he might, he couldn’t remember any of his readings or videos saying anything about humans needing to charge.

Byeongkwan pulled out his phone and snapped a photo of the charger and wire attached to Sehyoon, confusion swirling in his gut. He needed to get back to his apartment and call Donghun.

 

* * *

 

Sehyoon came back online slowly, feeling considerably better. His internal clock told him it was quite late, and he regretted having to cut his time hanging out with Byeongkwan short after he’d over exerted himself doing a self-upgrade earlier and then running out of time to charge before meeting Byeongkwan for dinner. He unplugged his charger from the wall and the port in his calf before coiling it up and placing it back in the drawer of his nightstand. He stretched, doing a brief rundown of his systems, and everything seemed to be functioning normally.

He went out to the living room sitting down on the couch and accessing his autorecordings of standby mode. Sehyoon fast forwarded through the first hour and a half easily, nothing popping up of note. At about the halfway point, he frowned when he saw footage of Byeongkwan approaching his front door. He hadn’t expected the other to return, but he realized quickly what had happened when he noticed his phone in Byeongkwan’s hand. 

Sehyoon felt a bizarre tightness in his gut as Byeongkwan let himself into Sehyoon’s house culminating in him going rigid once Byeongkwan entered his room. He was stuck watching as Byeongkwan stumbled back from Sehyoon’s motionless form in shock, clearly noticing the charger coming from Sehyoon’s leg. Byeongkwan left quickly and the footage ended not too long after. 

The android blinked, and suddenly he was back in his living room. Sehyoon immediately bolted up from the couch to confirm what had happened, and his processor seemed to churn double time when he noticed the phone on his dresser, still laying there from when Byeongkwan had set it down. He felt like he was shutting down though his systems relayed everything was normal. His phone beeped, signaling he had a text.

 

**Byeongkwan**

Can we talk?

 

Sehyoon threw the cell phone on the bed like it had burned him. After some long minutes ticked by, he pulled up his internal calling system. It felt odd to use it after only using a cell phone since Byeongkwan arrived, but he felt the situation warranted it. He sent the signal out, listening as the rings sounded in his ears.

“Hello?” Jun said, his face popping up in Sehyoon’s vision. “Sehyoon, is everything okay?” Jun frowned in concern.

“I messed up,” Sehyoon said.

“What?” Jun said, eyebrows shooting up.

“I messed up,” Sehyoon repeated, eyes flicking down to the phone on his bed. “I’m coming over.”

“That might not be a good idea right now-“ Jun began.

“It’s an emergency,” Sehyoon said.

Jun paused, looking nervous. “Alright.”

 

* * *

 

“Who was that?” Yuchan asked. He handed Donghun a glass of water, and the alien thanked him quietly though he didn’t look away from Jun, who had taken up pacing and running his fingers through his hair.

“It’s, uh, Wow,” Jun replied, eyes flicking to Donghun. “He’s coming over.” Donghun assumed that ‘Wow’ was one of their friends, or at least a nickname for one of them.

“What?” Yuchan sounded shocked. “Is something wrong? Did his system glitch?”

“I don’t know,” Jun replied, shaking his head. “He wouldn’t say. He just said he ‘messed up’, whatever that means. He sounded really serious.”

“That’s never good,” Yuchan said, mouth thinning into a firm line. “What about Donghun though?”

Jun glanced at Donghun apologetically. “Can you act human for just a little bit? Our friend is coming over. Actually you can just stay in one of our bedrooms until he leaves.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Donghun said, getting up from the couch. “Just tell me which room.”

Jun and Yuchan seemed to have a silent conversation that involved a lot of eyebrow wiggling. “My room,” Jun finally said, evidently having lost that round. Yuchan looked smug. “It’s at the end of the hall and to the right.” He pointed down the hallway. Donghun followed his instructions and shut himself inside the room.

He wasn’t sure what he really expected from the mechanic, but the room was pretty clean. There were papers and blueprints sprawled out over a desk in the corner, but otherwise it was neat. Donghun was particularly amused by a calendar on Jun’s desk that appeared to have a series of inspirational quotes, though they were all modified by someone else’s handwriting to be significantly less inspiring (Donghun’s best guess was that Yuchan was the culprit). He took a second to glance at the photos on the wall of people that he assumed were Jun’s friends and family, but immediately felt guilty about it. Sure Jun had them out in the open, but Donghun was pretty certain the human wouldn’t be alright with him prying.

To distract himself, he pulled out his holopad and scrolled through his messages. There was nothing yet from his home planet, but he did find one from Byeongkwan time stamped for about an hour ago. He frowned. Byeongkwan had just checked in the other day, so he shouldn’t be contacting Donghun again so soon unless something went wrong. A current of dread went through Donghun as he realized he didn’t have his ship, and therefore the resources to help Byeongkwan should the other be in any serious trouble.

He tapped the message hesitantly.

 

_Donghun,_

 

_I learned something serious about the neighbor I’ve been talking to. Call me when you get this._

 

_Byeongkwan_

 

Well, that didn’t sound good. Donghun sat down on Jun’s bed and immediately started a video call. The pad beeped softly as it connected, and soon enough Byeongkwan’s face showed up on the screen. Donghun felt a wave of relief as Byeongkwan didn’t appear injured at all.

“Donghun!” Byeongkwan exclaimed. “I have something important to tell you! I just-“ he paused, “Wait, where are you?” The other frowned as he apparently took in Donghun’s surroundings.

“It’s a long story,” Donghun said. “I’ll tell you after you tell me what happened.”

“Oh, right!” Byeongkwan said, perking up. “I went over to Sehyoon’s place earlier to give him his phone back. You know Sehyoon, right?”

Donghun tried not to roll his eyes. Sehyoon had been included in every report for the past month with Byeongkwan going on and on about different places they’d visited. He’d wondered if Sehyoon even had a job since it seemed like they went everywhere during the day. “Yes, I know him,” Donghun replied.

“Yeah, so when I went into his apartment, I was just gonna leave the phone in his room, but it was weird because he wasn’t in bed even though he’d been tired all day. And then,” Byeongkwan paused dramatically and Donghun was tempted to try and reach through the screen and throttle him for his theatrics, “I saw him standing by the wall. He was just staring straight ahead like this.” Byeongkwan made his face completely expressionless for a second before it went back to its usual animated appearance. “Like a robot! And then I saw this!” Byeongkwan tapped around on his tablet presumably and a second later there was a beep that signaled Donghun had a new message.

Donghun tapped to the message to see Byeongkwan had sent him a photo of what looked like a phone charger, though it trailed up to Sehyoon. His heart almost stopped because he had seen chargers like that before when he’d been researching various androids. He’d also seen them laying around Jun’s apartment, in fact there was a blueprint for one hanging right over the desk in Jun’s room.

“Do you know what it is?” Byeongkwan asked, looking concerned. “I didn’t think humans needed to charge like that.”

Donghun braced himself for what came next. “Byeongkwan, I don’t think Sehyoon is human. I think you’ve been speaking with an android,” he said. There was a long silence between them, and then-

“WHAT?!”

 

* * *

 

Not human? That wasn’t possible. Byeongkwan’s mind raced as he sorted through all his memories with Sehyoon, trying to pinpoint any moments that might have led to Donghun’s current conclusion. Sure, his neighbor was a little stiff and awkward at times, but some humans were like that, right? Although, Sehyoon was weirdly knowledgeable about things most people didn’t know and sometimes his voice had a more automated quality, but Byeongkwan had just written it off as the other being interested in odd things and having a scratchy throat occasionally.

“Are you sure?” he whispered, looking at Donghun. The other actually looked apologetic, and Byeongkwan knew he was serious.

“I’m sorry,” Donghun said. “That’s just what it sounds like from my perspective. The charger in the photo is one typically used to charge androids, and if you say it was coming from him then…” He trailed off and allowed Byeongkwan to fill in the gaps. Byeongkwan sat down heavily on his bed.

“I…” he didn’t know how to finish.

“Look, I’m sure Sehyoon has his reasons for keeping it from you,” Donghun began.

“Does he?” Byeongkwan snapped, feeling angry. “Does he actually have reasons? Can he have reasons?! What if I’ve just been forcing him to hang out with me this whole time?” What if all their trips really meant nothing to Sehyoon? He’d thought the other had hung out with him because he was having fun and actually enjoyed visiting different places with Byeongkwan, but with this new information Byeongkwan wondered if the other was even capable of comprehending the concept of friendship.

Donghun grimaced on the screen. “I don’t think he was, or else you probably would have met his owner by now. From what I’ve seen on television, not many androids go places without their owners.”

Byeongkwan frowned at the other’s point. He definitely had never encountered anyone that might have been Sehyoon’s owner up until this point. In fact, Sehyoon had sheepishly told Byeongkwan once that he was one of Sehyoon’s only three friends. “A free roaming android then?”

Donghun shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you.”

The blonde sighed. “I guess I’ll have to just ask him myself then.” Donghun nodded. “By the way, you need to tell me where you are now,” Byeongkwan said, realizing he still didn’t recognize the background of wherever Donghun was. There was definitely no place on their ship that looked like that.

Donghun made a pained expression. “Funny story. A couple of idiot mechanics in your area built a super powerful electro magnet that pulled my ship out of orbit.”

Byeongkwan’s eyes widened. “The fuck?!”

“That’s what I said at first,” Donghun agreed. “Anyway, as far as I currently know, our ship is scrap now and the only surviving things I have is my holopad and the pod that I managed to eject myself in before impact.”

Byeongkwan tried to take this all in. “So how are we supposed to go home now?”

Donghun shifted uncomfortably. “I sent a message to our home planet, but I haven’t heard back yet. It might be a while until they manage to receive it and send a rescue vessel, especially since we’re not technically in extreme danger.”

“I mean not yet!” Byeongkwan said, “But what if someone finds our ship? We could be exposed!”

“Uh, yeah, about that,” Donghun rubbed the back of his neck, “We kind of…already are.”

“What?! Who?! How?!” Byeongkwan said, every emergency procedure from his training flashing through his mind at once.

“You know how I said two idiots created that electro magnet? Yeah, well I basically landed right on top of them. They’re actually letting me stay with them for now.”

Byeongkwan rubbed a hand down his face. “Well this is just a mess.” Donghun made a noise of agreement.

“Yeah. At least it can’t get any worse.”

 

* * *

 

Donghun probably should have kept his mouth shut because things did, in fact, get worse. He ended his video call with Byeongkwan after a few more minutes of tense discussion where they solved approximately zero problems, and Donghun slipped his holopad back into his pocket. If he strained his ears, he could hear Yuchan and Jun talking with someone else, presumably the friend Jun had mentioned earlier. 

Against his better judgement, Donghun moved closer to the door. Normally he didn’t like listening in on other’s conversations, but he was mildly worried that the two of them would accidentally give up his identity.

“-me,” the friend was saying. “I don’t know what to do about it. If he tells anyone-“

“He won’t,” Jun said confidently. “He’s your friend, right? Just explain it to him. From what you’ve told us so far, he sounds like he’d be accepting enough.”

“I guess,” the friend said hesitantly.

Donghun had an urge to open the door and see what was going on. “Don’t do it,” Donghun thought to himself. Then he sighed as he gave in, twisting the doorknob open and peeking out. He froze there, staring at the person speaking with Jun and Yuchan. That was definitely the Sehyoon who Byeongkwan had been talking about over the past month, Donghun had stared at enough pictures of him to know for sure. Looking back, he should have put all the pieces together sooner. With Sehyoon being an android, it only made sense that he should go to some mechanics every now and then.

His hearts both skipped a beat when he accidentally made eye contact with Sehyoon, the other going statue still as well. Jun noticed as Sehyoon cut off mid sentence. Donghun gave up all pretense of stealth and pushed the door wide open, staring at Sehyoon. The android looked back at him scrutinizingly, presumably scanning him.

“Why do I feel like we’re in the middle of a standoff?” Yuchan whispered.

“I haven’t seen this much tension since my last family dinner,” Jun agreed.

“Kim Sehyoon,” the android finally said, introducing himself.

“Lee Donghun,” Donghun replied, narrowing his eyes. The android didn’t seem to recognize the name, so Donghun assumed Byeongkwan had kept all information about him quiet. Sehyoon nodded jerkily.

“I was actually leaving soon,” Sehyoon said. “I have to discuss something with my neighbor back at the apartment.”

“I’m going with you,” Donghun said decisively. All three of the others looked taken aback by that, but Donghun held firm. “I know Byeongkwan, and I have to speak with him.” The android’s eyes widened at that, and for a moment Donghun was fooled into thinking he was human. Honestly, this was all getting too complicated and most of their problems probably wouldn’t be solved unless they had an honest discussion. Speaking with the others might even offer a solution for Donghun and Byeongkwan’s current situation, or at least make their extended stay on Earth more bearable. “In fact, I think all of us should go. There’s a lot of things we need to talk about.”

 

* * *

 

The walk to Sehyoon’s apartment complex was tense. Sehyoon kept shooting confused glances at Donghun, and the alien kept giving him wary glances back. Jun was ready to scream by they time they stood outside Kim Byeongkwan’s door. Jun had never met Sehyoon’s new neighbor himself, but the android had brought him up before when he’d come in for his check ups. Under different circumstances Jun was sure he’d be excited to meet Byeongkwan, but right now it felt like he was approaching the principal’s office in elementary school all over again.

Sehyoon knocked on the door. “Byeongkwan? It’s me. We need to talk.” There was a sound of feet on a hardwood floor, and suddenly the door swung open. Jun blinked. He wasn’t sure what he expected Kim Byeongkwan to look like, but he wasn’t ready for a short blonde with cat-like eyes and a wide open expression.

“Sehyoon! I’ve been trying to reach you!” he said, holding up his phone as proof. His eyes roved over all of them before landing on Donghun. The boy almost dropped his phone. “What are you doing here?”

Donghun sighed. “We shouldn’t have this discussion in the hallway.” They all hurried into Byeongkwan’s apartment and the door shut behind them. They slowly migrated to the living room which only featured a couple of armchairs and a couch. Byeongkwan and Donghun dropped onto the couch while Jun and Yuchan took the arm chairs. Sehyoon leaned against the wall, not looking at all bothered by it.

“You don’t need to stand,” Byeongkwan said, moving to get to his feet, “I can get a chair from my room.”

“It doesn’t bother me,” Sehyoon said. Jun saw his mouth twitched downward as Byeongkwan looked away.

“Okay,” Donghun said, getting all of their attention. “I think there are a lot of secrets in this room, so I’ll go first. I am not from Earth.”

Byeongkwan gasped and smacked his friend. “There are two-” his eyes darted to Jun and Yuchan. 

“They know,” Donghun said. “They’re the two idiot mechanics I told you about who brought down our ship.”

“Hey!” Jun protested. 

Donghun stared back blankly. “Am I wrong?”

Jun huffed. “Well no, but you could say it nicer.”

“Doesn’t translate,” Donghun blatantly lied, the corners of his mouth quirking up. Jun let out an offended noise.

“You’re an alien?” Sehyoon asked, eyes widening.

Donghun nodded. “Yup. I’m from a planet about,” he frowned, “Three billion light years away. We were sent here to observe what your species is like and then report back.”

“We…” Sehyoon began, gaze trailing to Byeongkwan. “You mean…?”

Byeongkwan bit his lip. “Yes,” he confirmed, evidently giving up on all pretenses. “I was supposed to scout out anything of interest and report back. Things like human behavior and environments.” He smiled wryly. “Apparently I couldn’t even get that right.”

Jun winced as Sehyoon jerked back. “I didn’t mean to…” Sehyoon began, shaking his head, “I mean. I would have told you.”

“Right,” Byeongkwan said bitterly. The android slouched against the wall and Jun abruptly felt terrible. Despite being an android Sehyoon had always been eager to make connections, though hesitant to initiate contact himself. When he’d first told Jun and Yuchan about the new friend he’d made, he had looked so excited.

“It’s my fault,” Jun said, taking in Sehyoon’s crestfallen expression. “I told Sehyoon he should try and interact with humans more to blend in better. If people discovered that he does things of his own will, he could be shipped back to the factory.”

“What do you mean ‘of his own will’?” Byeongkwan asked. “He’s a robot, right?”

“Yes, but we modified his code,” Yuchan chimed in. “We gave him the equivalent of what most people would consider free will. He makes all of his decisions independently without our input.” Yuchan glanced at Jun, who nodded in confirmation. “We also custom designed his emotional core so that he would be able to feel things, at least as far as our comprehension was concerned.”

The silence that followed Yuchan's explanation was deafening. Byeongkwan seemed to turn the new information over his head for a few minutes before he faced Sehyoon. “So…you actually wanted to go to all those cat cafes and crappy diners with me?”

Sehyoon looked at Byeongkwan hopefully. “I assure you, no bit of coding could force me to go to all those places if I didn’t want to go myself.”

Byeongkwan finally broke into a slow grin. “Okay.” He beamed at Sehyoon. “I don’t really have a problem with you being an android. I was just angry that you didn’t tell me, but you have your reasons.”

“Just like I’m sure you have your reasons for telling me you weren’t an alien,” Sehyoon said, smiling back.

“Yeah, well, I really don’t want to be taken apart,” Byeongkwan said.

“That makes two of us,” Sehyoon replied. They both smiled at each other, and Jun felt a wave of relief pass through him. 

“You still have a problem though,” Yuchan said, breaking the moment. “How are you two going to get home?”

Donghun sighed. “I sent out the message, but it’ll be a while before they can send someone out to help us.” He glanced at Jun and Yuchan. “I could probably stay with Byeongkwan if necessary.”

Jun frowned. “Really, it’s no problem. The couch pulls out into a bed, and Yuchan and I can definitely afford to feed you as long as you eat human food.”

Donghun nodded hesitantly. “I do, but I hate to impose.”

“It’s the least we can do for making you crash in the first place,” Yuchan said. “Just accept it.”

“Fine,” Donghun said. He looked a little put out, but Jun knew that no one could argue with Yuchahn. The alien turned back to Byeongkwan. “I’ll let you know whenever they send a message, but for now.. I guess we just have to make do.”

Byeongkwan grinned. “Well, since you’re stuck on earth, I have to show you some of the sights around here. Have you heard of a cat cafe?”

 

* * *

 

Byeongkwan and Sehyoon were practically regulars at the cat cafe, as evidenced by the waitress asking if they wanted ‘the usual’ when they arrived, but it was like their first time visiting all over again when they brought their three other friends with them. Jun and Yuchan were thrilled to be playing with all the cats, trying to coax some of the more reluctant ones over to them. Donghun had been wary at first, eyeing some of their sharp claws nervously, but eventually he’d warmed up to one cat in particular who was content sunning itself on a small cushion and didn’t mind him petting it.

Byeongkwan was amused when Donghun could barely tear himself away from the cat long enough to drain his cup of coffee before he was back next to the animal. The black and white cat let out soft purrs, and Byeongkwan was pretty sure Donghun was tearing up.

“So, do they not have anything like cats where you guys are from?” Yuchan asked.

Byeongkwan shook his head. “No. At least, nothing on land. Half of our planet is submerged in water and the other half is on land. Most animals on land are too dangerous to try and domesticate. The ones that we do keep are mostly what you would consider livestock. Underwater though, some people keep pets. There’s an animal that resembles your octopi that some keep as pets.”

Yuchan’s eyes widened. “Wow. How do you live underwater? Do you have gills?”

Byeongkwan nodded, running his fingers over his gills that were closed up on the side of his neck. “I’ve mostly lived on land for the course of my life though. Donghun’s the one who lived underwater more.”

“How long do you live?” Jun asked.

“About seventy years by our calendar,” Byeongkwan said, “If we were to go by your orbit, I’d say ninety years.” 

The song playing over the cafe’s speakers suddenly switched. Byeongkwan’s ears perked up. “What song is this?” he asked.

Jun listened for a second. “It’s from a drama soundtrack,” he said, recognizing the tune after a few seconds.The song was slow and melancholic.

“Can we watch the drama sometime?” Byeongkwan said when the song ended. “It sounded so good.”

“It is good,” Yuchan said. “It’s about a goblin trying to find his wife.”

“Does he ever find her?” Byeongkwan asked, intrigued.

Yuchan shrugged. “You’ll have to watch it.” He then laughed at the alien’s pout before taking pity on the other. “I think that it’s a nice story. They struggle a lot and even get separated for a while, but eventually they find each other.”

 

* * *

 

By the time all five of them got back to Yuchan and Jun’s apartment, they were exhausted. They’d walked around to all the places Byeongkwan and Sehyoon had explored by themselves with both of them now acting as tour guides. Byeongkwan would spend most of the time talking about the differences between human cultures and his home’s culture and Sehyoon would occasionally chime in with random facts from the Internet.

Honestly, Donghun’s head was spinning by the time they managed to get the pullout bed fixed up. It was so late, Jun had insisted that Byeongkwan stay over. Though the blonde had protested initially, he couldn’t argue when Jun said that Sehyoon would be staying over anyway because Jun kept spare chargers at his place and this was the perfect opportunity to have a movie night and introduce the two aliens to some of the finer media humanity had churned out.

“I don’t get it,” Donghun whispered. “How is the robot able to change into a car?” He looked at Sehyoon curiously. “Can you turn into a car?”

Sehyoon gave him a blank look. “Do I look like I have enough mass to turn into a car?”

“You might be able to make a segway,” Byeongkwan said, looking Sehyoon up and down. “Have you tried?”

“I don’t have wheels,” Sehyoon said. “And I’m not designed to disassemble and reassemble like that.” He pointed to the screen where one of the large robots turned into a sports car midair.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Donghun said, “What were you designed to do? I tried researching androids in case Byeongkwan needed to buy one, but I never found one like you.”

“I ordered him custom made,” Jun chimed in, evidently giving up on watching the movie. Donghun was pretty sure the two humans had watched it plenty of times already if the way they both quoted various lines from it was any indication. “Originally I got him as an assistant since Yuchan hadn’t started working with me yet. Yuchan works with programming the robots while I specialize in the physical maintenance of androids. Since I didn’t need Sehyoon to help me with the software anymore, I said Yuchan could modify his code.”

“Originally, I was just going to program Sehyoon to work on other projects, but I made his AI so independent that he would start completing tasks without being prompted,” Yuchan explained. “After a few months, both Jun and I decided that Sehyoon had enough autonomy that it bordered on sentience, so we started adding more programming on his emotional core and processor. For all intents and purposes, he’s basically human in terms of self awareness.”

Donghun nodded thoughtfully. “We have robots and automated systems back home, but none are as sophisticated as Sehyoon.” The android actually looked a little proud about that.

“My turn to ask a question,” Sehyoon asked, eyes zeroing in on the bracelets on Donghun and Byeongkwan’s wrists. “How do your translators work?”

Byeongkwan fiddled with his. “They just auto-translate our words into the pre-programmed languages. Since we were assigned this sector, they only translate to Korean, but we can overwrite that with whatever language is necessary. And it’s not really a complete translation, but more like it influences all our brain waves so we understand the meaning of what everyone is saying, without everyone speaking the same language. There actually things that don’t translate entirely.”

“Like what?” Yuchan asked.

Donghun looked at Byeongkwan before he switched off his translator. Byeongkwan did the same. “The Festival of New Life. For all the new hatchlings.”

Byeongkwan nodded excitedly. “Right! I don’t think humans usually have a celebration for that. Although, I don’t really expect them to. There aren’t many things that are celebrated planet wide from what I can see. Most of their holidays are specific to various regions or religions. The only one I can really think of is when a new year starts.”

“True,” Donghun said. “We don’t really celebrate that on our planet though.” He looked over to the humans and android whose heads were whipping back and forth as they spoke. He tried not to laugh and turned his translator back on.

“Woah,” Yuchan said, eyes wide. “I honestly can’t figure out how you made those noises. Some of them sounded like it could almost be a language on Earth, but then Byeongkwan said something that I’ve only heard be used as a sound effect in movies.”

“Specialized respiratory systems,” Donghun said, watching Byeongkwan turn his own translator back on. “Allows for breathing above and underwater along with a variety of sounds that can be understood in both environments.”

“That’s amazing,” Jun said, breaking out into a grin. Donghun gave a half shrug, feeling slightly embarrassed under their scrutiny. Sehyoon’s gaze in particular was especially unnerving, as if he was trying to scan directly inside Donghun’s chest and verify the difference in respiratory systems for himself.

“My turn for a question,” Byeongkwan said, clapping his hands together. “What are memes? I keep seeing them while I'm trying to do research on your planet.” There was a long silence from the humans.

“Well,” Yuchan began, a grin spreading over his face slowly. “I actually have a PowerPoint on this topic. Sehyoon, could I ask you to project it? I’ll e-mail it to your system.”

 

* * *

 

All in all, living on Earth wasn’t too hard after the first couple of weeks. Donghun found himself adjusting easily. Sure, he didn’t get to swim everywhere like he did back home, but they still had stores and services like those back on his planet. A month flew by almost without him noticing, until one day his holopad beeped with an incoming message.

 

_In response to your distress signal, a rescue craft has been dispatched to your location. Keep your tracker on and contact headquarters if you experience any dangerous situations._

 

_Estimated arrival: 5 days_

 

Donghun blinked, almost not comprehending the words in front of him. In retrospect, he should have realized that this time would come soon. But, now that it was here, Donghun wasn’t sure he was ready to leave. That wasn’t to say he didn’t miss his home planet, but he was enjoying his time on Earth. There were always new things to see every time he stepped outside. And (though he wouldn’t mention this even on his deathbed) he enjoyed living with Jun and Yuchan and hanging out with Byeongkwan and Sehyoon. 

However, he knew that those thoughts were useless, and he needed to start preparing to depart. He was sure his family was worried about him, and he owed it to them to go back. Donghun pulled up his call log and started a video call with Byeongkwan. The holopad beeped when it connected.

“Did you get the news?” Byeongkwan asked instead of a usual greeting.

Donghun nodded. “Five days.”

The blonde let out a long breath. “I actually never thought about us leaving.”

“It seems surreal almost,” Donghun agreed. “But we need to start preparations.”

The other bit his lip but his eyes were resigned. “I’ll get the pod back up and running so they can pick that up too.” Not long after Donghun’s crash landing, all five of them had gone searching for the main ship, only to conclude it was in too many pieces and too damaged to be functional. Jun had melted most of it down, but what remained was barely usable as scraps.

“Alright,” Donghun said. “Start packing up your apartment also.” Donghun himself had very little to collect, in fact most of his clothes were from either Jun or Yuchan. Aside from his work uniform and his holopad, he had no belongings on Earth. “We…probably shouldn’t tell command about the humans or Sehyoon.”

“Agreed,” Byeongkwan said with a grimace. Their higher ups would probably just wipe Yuchan and Jun’s memories, but Donghun had no clue how they would deal with Sehyoon. He felt sick at the idea of the android being completely wiped or reprogrammed. He didn’t even entertain the idea of the other being disassembled. “Should we…tell the others now then?”

Donghun paused. “They’d want to know,” he said eventually. He wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.

“You’re right,” Byeongkwan said. “But I don’t like it.”

 

* * *

 

Jun was crying, which surprised absolutely no one. Yuchan sighed. “Jun, you have to let them go or they aren’t going to make it to their meeting point in time.” Jun showed no sign of loosening his grip from the two aliens’ arms.

“Jun,” Donghun tried to say firmly, shaking the his arm half-heartedly. “We have to go. They can’t know about you three.”

“Can you guys at least come back?” Jun asked, wiping at his eyes without releasing either of them. At least he'd stopped openly crying as hard.

“That’s not up to us,” Donghun said, finally managing to pry his arm out. Jun responding by clinging to Byeongkwan tighter. 

Byeongkwan grinned, though it was a bit forced. “If we can, we’ll come back.”

Jun finally released Byeongkwan from his death grip. “I don’t like that you have to leave. But at least take these so you don’t forget us.” He gave both Donghun and Byeongkwan identical boxes small enough to fit in their palms that had small cranks on the sides.

“What are these?” Byeongkwan asked, opening the box to reveal some very intricate machinery inside.

“They’re music boxes,” Jun said, taking one of them. He closed the lid and turned the crank a few times before opening it again. High delicate notes floated out from the box.

Byeongkwan’s eyes widened as he recognized the tune. “That’s from the drama!” he said excitedly, taking the box back to hold it up to his ear.

Donghun turned to Jun. “Thank you.” Jun nodded, giving him a small grin. Sehyoon had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time.

Byeongkwan looked to the android. “Sehyoon,” he said, getting the other’s attention. He smiled. “I’ll miss you the most,” he said in a stage whisper, “Don’t tell Jun.” Jun let out a mock offended gasp and Yuchan laughed.

Sehyoon finally grinned back and said in the same tone, “I’ll miss you the most too. Don’t tell Donghun.” Donghun rolled his eyes, but the corners of his mouth was twitching upward. Byeongkwan wrapped his friend in a quick hug. The android stiffened for a minute before hugging him back. They separated after a minute.

“What, you’re not going to hug me too?” Jun asked, putting his hands on his hips. “I won’t stand for this blatant favoritism.” Byeongkwan laughed before hugging Jun and Yuchan as well. Jun looked at Donghun expectantly, arms spread. Donghun groaned but eventually hugged all three of them as well.

“Alright, we really need to get going now,” Donghun said, checking his holopad. He and Byeongkwan gave their friends one last wave before they started walking to their meeting point. Donghun noticed how Byeongkwan’s expression fell a little more with each step. “Hey,” he said, patting the other on the back, “It’ll be okay.”

“I miss them already,” Byeongkwan said, voice shaky. “Is that weird?”

Donghun thought of how his own heart was growing heavier as they left their friends behind. “No, it’s not.”

 

* * *

 

_4 Earth years later_

 

“Lee Donghun?” his superior said, looking up from his holopad to see Donghun standing at attention in front of his desk.

“Yes,” Donghun said, resisting the urge to shift his weight under the higher up’s gaze. “You asked to see me?”

“Indeed,” they said. They pulled up a star chart hologram and pointed to a sector, enlarging it until Donghun could see a very familiar solar system. “You and your partner Byeongkwan were assigned to this sector a few years ago, correct?”

“Yes,” Donghun confirmed.

They hummed. “And if your reports read correctly, you both were stranded there for a month with your partner having been stationed there for an additional month prior.”

“That’s correct.”

They nodded in approval. “That’s good.” They laughed at Donghun’s presumably confused expression. “We are considering making contact with the inhabitants of the planet soon. With the way their technology is advancing, they’ll soon achieve a more sophisticated form of space travel. However, we need undercover officers monitoring their situation and letting us know how they are developing so we can formulate the best plan for initiating contact.”

“Do you mean…?” Donghun trailed off, barely daring to hope.

“Yes, we want to send you and your partner back there as part of the initial team, ideally in your previous location as you have already established what life was like there,” Donghun’s superior officer said. 

Donghun blinked. “I accept.”

They smiled. “I was hoping you would say that.”

 

* * *

 

There was someone moving in next door. Sehyoon didn’t bother asking for more information when he heard the news. In all honesty, he didn’t want to know who was moving into Byeongkwan’s old apartment. It had been a while, years in fact, since Byeongkwan and Donghun had been on Earth, but Sehyoon’s memories had never faded courtesy of his programming. He knew that Jun and Yuchan missed them too, but they had managed to push their sadness away easier than Sehyoon. The android had found himself resenting his emotional capacity for the first time.

He was jolted out of his memories by a knock on his apartment door. It was probably his wishful thinking that the knock sounded familiar. Maybe he should consider paying Jun a visit if he was thinking knocks reminded him of Byeongkwan and Donghun. The knock came again, more insistent.

“I’m coming!” Sehyoon opened the door and was greeted by a plate of brownies right in his face. The plate lowered, and Sehyoon had to run a full systems check to make sure he wasn’t seeing things that weren’t supposed to be there. As all the systems came back as undamaged, Sehyoon took in the image of Byeongkwan beaming at him with a plate of brownies with a long suffering Donghun standing behind him, arms crossed over his chest.

“Hi! We just moved in next door,” Byeongkwan said cheerily, nodding his head toward the apartment next to Sehyoon’s. “Would you mind showing us around?”

**Author's Note:**

> In case you're wondering, the song being referenced from the drama is Beautiful by Crush from the drama Goblin.


End file.
